


The Hub

by doctorwillowsimmons



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, assumed sexuality, relationship in future chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1942767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorwillowsimmons/pseuds/doctorwillowsimmons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my little self indulgent AU where I write about Skye owning a hip sex shop in the east village of NY, where Trip is her best friend and employee. She hires Jemma to do the books. Sparks are going to fly, romance will happen. To be updated as I have the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Taxes

The papers flew across the room, exploding in a sort of elegant scatter. Skye was so done with all these numbers. She hated all the tax forms, all the lease forms, all the book keeping. God, she thought, exasperated, can’t I just sell sex toys in the east village with out having to do a mountain of paper work? What’s become of this world?  
She went over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of wine, uncorking it and pouring practically half the bottle into her oversized glass. She sat on her couch and turned on the TV to Toodlers in Tiaras: an excellent escape from the all the book keeping, and her current guilty pleasure.  
She then sent a text to Trip that read “Will pay you in wine AND $$$ to do the numbers and taxes. I have broken down. I can’t go on. Come now.”  
Trip, her first and favorite employee, replies quickly for a friday night.   
"Told u, I can’t do numbers. I’m a salesman, not an accountant! U gotta hire someone for this! And r u serious about coming over? Night out not going as planned… I can be there in 10. Will bring Sangria."  
Skye smiled. In addition to being her favorite employee, Trip was a good friend. He’d been her only employee for a while when she first opened the shop, 18 months ago. Since then he’d been a devoted worker (he was so suave, he made the customers so comfortable) and a fast learner (she swore he knew more about the stuff they sold then she did.) And, importantly, he was also bisexual. They had bonded over that a lot, over how misunderstood bisexuality was, over how people always thought they were promiscuous or like, “half gay.” They’d become friends more then boss/employee, and she trusted trip with everything. They were also extremely comfortable with each other— working in a sex shop sort of breaks down any walls between you and your employees.   
Not much more then 10 minutes later, Trip arrived, pitcher of Sangria in hand and… was that take out of some sort? The bag looked like it contained Thai food…  
"Come in my wayward son!" Skye always got a kick out of calling trip "son" or "my boy" or some other child like pet name. He was only five years younger, but she always felt maternal around him. Maternal in the sense that she taught him almost everything he knew about sex toys. Which she realized wasn’t very maternal and actually the whole family analogy was creepy. He alerted her of this once, but it wasn’t like she cared.   
"Don’t get too excited. Just leftovers from my dinner. Which went terribly. Your text gave me a great out, actually. This girl my Mom set me up with— just really not my type. Told her there was a work emergency." Trip smirked, smiling as if he invented that excuse.   
Skye laughed. “What kind of work emergency would we have at a sex shop?”  
"I didn’t exactly tell her I worked at a sex store. That’s like, third date material."  
Skye laughed. She’d always been more open about her chosen career path. She’d been working in the sex positivity movement since she graduated from USC and moved to new york. It was such a big part of her personality she usually ended up dating people from the network, because they understood her passion for it. If the queer ladies community in new york was frighteningly small and intertwined, the queer ladies who work in sex positive movement were even smaller and even more intwined. It made dating awkward— seeing the same people at the same events, same bars, and a overlap chart that made the L word look simple. Her last ex had moved to Boston, which was great for her, because Skye was so done with seeing her exes around town. Especially this one, after all she had put Skye through.   
"mmm. Sangria. Want." Skye said, reaching to take the pitcher, along with the leftovers, which she proceeded to put on the table and eat straight from the container.   
"Skye." Trip said, placing a hand on the Sangria. "No sangria till you hire someone to handle the numbers."  
Skye pouted. “Hey, I employ you! I’m the boss” she protested. “I decide when we hire someone… to do the crucial tax work that’s due in two weeks.”   
Trip gave her a stern look and she knew she had to get on it. Despite her effort to be the grown up, maternal one in the friendship, Trip always ended up being the one to make Skye do all the boring things. Like taxes. She hadn’t really thought about Taxes when she opened The Hub (The one stop shop for all your sexual needs!). It was about creating a safe space and selling unique sex toys. But somehow, it had become all about book keeping, and taxes. Damn, she hated taxes so much she felt like a republican.   
"Because I like working here and don’t want this place to go under for tax evasion, I’ve put together a list of candidates that I pulled from the ad section… I also may have put out an ad myself and phone interviewed a few people already."  
He pulled his phone out, showing her a few linked in profiles.   
The first was for an amazingly hunky guy named Grant. He sure was pretty, Skye thought. Not exactly her type— she liked ‘em gangly and nerdy, but he was pretty. Hmm. “What about him?” She asked, eager to give the okay to the first one to get it over with. And get that Sangira that Trip was holding on to.  
"Well, the thing is, he hasn’t actually got a degree in… any of this. His degree is in acting and his response to his ad said he took ap calc in high school. I know he doesn’t fit the bill, but he’s so pretty. Can we have him, please?"  
Skye laughed. “Are you trying to use this hiring process to get a date? I thought you were here to save my business!”   
Trip smiled. “Six months, Skye. I haven’t been on a decent date in six months.”  
"Stop being so dramatic. Not this Ward guy, we need someone who knows what they’re doing."  
The next option was a girl named Jemma Simmons. She was cute, young (just about Skye’s age), and unemployed. She looked viable. As they sifted through other candidates, she kept thinking this Jemma seemed best. She had a degree in accounting and experience doing numbers for retail, which was the best resume as of yet.   
After deciding, Trip shot her an email telling her she got the job. He got a reply back minutes later, asking when she should start.  
"Wow, I guess her friday night isn’t going to well either, if she’s replying to emails at…" he looked at his watch, "11:30 on a friday." Skye laughed.   
"I guess not. Now, I did the thing! I did the mature adult thing of hiring someone else to do the work I don’t want to do! I think this is what they call being successful! Now give me sangria!”  
Trip was true to his word and they ended up getting drunk off the Sangria, watching a dumb rom com (which they both secretly enjoyed), and Trip ended up sleeping on the couch. This was not an uncommon occurrence.  
He work up the next morning and made Skye breakfast.  
"If I did employee of the month, you’d be it. Every time" Skye smiled, mouth full of Trip’s amazing m&m pancakes.   
"Yeah, but you only have two other employees, and they each only do one shift a week. It’s not exactly a competition."  
"I dunno," Skye said, "Victoria’s real good with running the website. For all you know she could be over here all the time, hanging with me."  
Trip gave her a look.   
"Fine, okay, she’s not. But she totally would come over if I texted, she totally has a crush on me."  
Trip rolled his eyes, but didn’t protest. He was pleased they’d finally hired someone and he was somewhat hungover, too. Maybe now they could get on with what they wanted to do: sell sex toys and promote healthy sex lives. Not taxes.


	2. Don't Knock it Till You've Tried It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma's first day of work

"A sex shop? really, Jemma, you, working in a Sex Shop?" Fitz exclaimed, giddy with laughter. He took a sip from his tea. It was late on friday night, and he had just gotten home from a shift at the restaurant where he was a waiter. It was called The Playground, and was a family style place, filled with screaming children, which always put him in a bad mood. But news over Jemma’s new occupation brought him right out of it.   
Jemma immediately regretted telling him. Sure, he was her best friend, her oldest friend, the person who knew every detail about her, the guy who had seen her through every emotional hurdle life and thrown at her, and was her roommate. But this was one thing she wished he didn’t know, if only to stop him from lording it over her.  
She knew he was right to be in disbelief. She wasn’t the type to be open about anything related to sex. She hadn’t had that much of it, and any jokes or references too it made her blush on the spot. She wasn’t even open with her sexuality to anyone aside from Fitz, and the girls at the local bar.   
But the job wasn’t actually in the sex store, she clarified, it was doing the books for a sex store. That was different, she told Fitz… and herself. “I’m not going to be like, selling…. whatever they sell there. I’m going to be doing their taxes, and the book keeping. And it’s only part time.”  
"Dildos, vibrators, condoms, those sorts of things"  
"What?" Jemma replied, flushed.   
"Those are the kinds of things they sell there. See what I mean, just talking about it has you all red in the face!"   
Jemma scowled and suggested the watch a movie- any movie. Anything to get his mind off her new job.  
"So your date tonight?" He asked, as the opening credits of Star Wars rolled. In spite of her attempt to shut him up with his favorite movie, he apparently wasn’t done.   
"How do you think it went, fitz? Considering I’m here watching a movie with you at midnight?" She scowled, quickly adding "Not that you’re not excellent company." Fitz stopped, leaned back on the couch, and Jemma leaned over onto his shoulder. They watched the move, with Fitz quoting half the lines. A fairly typical friday night.   
—-  
It’s called “The Hub,” which was innocuous sounding enough. Granted, it’s full name was “The Hub: Your one stop shop for all your sexual needs!” but she didn’t need to tell her parents that part. She could just tell them she got a got doing some freelance work for… a local business.   
Sadly, it wasn’t too local. It was deep into the east village, and Jemma lived out in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. The commute was 90 minutes long. Not too bad though, considering her last job had been in the Bronx. Jemma got on the train the next morning, already blushing over the idea of walking in to a sex shop. Just be glad you’ve got a job, she told herself.  
She got off the 6 train at 8th street, and wandered through St. Mark’s Place, looking for 2nd avenue. She found the shop, nestled between a hip looking cafe and an off beat bookstore. As she stood to turn inside, she realized she had never actually gone into a sex shop before. Well, there’s a first time for everything.   
She pushed open the door, and was greeted by a display of dildos in every color of the rainbow. A sign said “June is gay pride month! celebrate with 10% of all rainbow dildos!”  
She could feel her face was already red.   
"Hey there," a deep, strong voice said. She turned to see a tall, muscular, beautiful man standing to her left. He wore a little name tag that said "Here to help! My name is TRIP" and a few other buttons that said things like "SEX POSITIVITY" or "Ask me ANYTHING."   
"You must be the accountant lady! Or you’e just someone coming in to shop for dildos at 9:30 on a monday morning. Which would be a first."  
"Yes- I mean no- I mean yes, I am the numbers person. Not shopping for dildos. hah. nope, noooo way. Not my thing. No, yeah I’m numbers. Not shopping." She couldn’t stop herself. But Trip didn’t seem put off. He smiled a little. He probably saw people get flustered all the time at the store, so this wasn’t a big deal.   
"Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Took me long enough to come around… but then I came around." Trip then winked at her.  
Oh no. Was he talking about sex? With dildos? but he was a? Did men even use? Jemma was flustered and she knew her face was entirely red. She was so easily embarrassed.   
Why? she thought to herself. Why can’t I just grow up and be an adult about sex? Was it the catholic school? Why couldn’t I just be smooth like this guy. Maybe this job isn’t for me. I can find something else, I should just—  
The door in he back of the shop opened and a woman came out. She was tall, had long, wavy flowing hair (the kind you see in shampoo commercials but don’t think is attainable in real life). She had on skinny jeans, a gray t shirt, and a red and white flannel, which was filed with rips and holes. She also wore several necklaces and rings. Jemma couldn’t help but check her out— she was, well she was really hot. And her style was awesome, she had that whole “queer chick in the east village” look down to a T. Ok, maybe this job could work.   
"I heard that last bit of conversation there!" the woman said, "And I’m here to save you from Trip, ever the great salesmen, who seems to have made you uncomfortable." She smiled warmly at trip, lightly shaking his shoulder. "Give her a moment to settle in before trying to sell her a dildo." Jemma was relieved to get an out from this conversation, but she could feel her face getting more red, because now this attractive women knew she was awkward and made uncomfortable by sex.   
Skye put her arm around Trip and joked with him about not scaring new employees. Jemma couldn’t help but wonder from their interactions if they were dating. Was this woman, who she presumed to be the owner, Skye, the one who used the didlos on him that he was talking about? Stop it, stop going there, she thought in her head.   
"Alright!" The woman clapped her hands together. "I’m Skye, owner and proprietor here." She reached out her right hand. Jemma shook it, her hand weak and clammy, as opposed to Skye’s firm shake, complete with dazzling smile. God, this woman was gorgeous.   
"Let’s get you set up in the back! I’ve got a spare desk, and tons of papers! It’s gonna be fun, if your idea of fun is moving numbers around on page and doing out taxes. Which I hope it is because that’s why we hired you." She led Jemma into the back, which had a small break room, and an office with two desks. One was covered in paper, clearly Skye’s, and the other was empty except for a large stack of papers, which Jemma assumed to be "the books."   
"Ok, so, you’re good? You haven’t exactly spoken. Can I just… leave you here with these books? and you can make magic happen?"  
"Yes- yeah, I can. I mean there a little…"   
"they’re a huge mess, I know, don’t feel bad for pointing out the obvious," skye said.  
Jemma laughed. Skye was so good at being comfortable, and talking to people. She was making Jemma feel so comfortable already.   
"Yes, I can work with them." Jemma smiled and sat down, and skye said "Great!" and left to go to the front of the store.   
As soon as the door closed, she let out a deep breath. What had she gotten in to?


End file.
